Since its release, the ASUS Transformer Prime TF201 has been met with its fair share of praises and criticism. Its been called the fastest, smoothest Android tablet to date, but user reports of WiFi and GPS issues are all over the web. When ASUS announced an upgraded Prime TF700, complaints reached a fever pitch, with disgruntled TF201 owners claiming the upgrade was to skirt around the issues present in the TF201, leaving original Prime owners stuck with a broken device.

Well ASUS has heard the complaints, and has issued a statement on what they plan to do about it. If you live in the UK that is.

On the official company blog, ASUS has come out and said that due to an overwhelming amount of customers “dissatisfied with the performance of the GPS module” in the Prime TF201, consumers in the UK will be able to return their tablet for a full refund, or should they decide to keep it, enroll in a 12 to 18 month extended warranty plan.

As part of our unwavering commitment to our customers, we wish to allay some recent concerns regarding the Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201.

After extensive checks we can confirm that no units have been supplied to the UK with a known WiFi issue. ...

Any customers who have purchased a Transformer Prime TF201 and are dissatisfied with the performance of the GPS module are advised to return the unit to their point of purchase for a full refund as per standard consumer rights that apply in the UK.

Any customers who wish to keep their unit will be offered an extension to the standard ASUS warranty from 12 to 18 months (for any retailers who offer an additional 12 months’ warranty with their purchase, the total warranty period will remain at 2 years).ASUS UKOfficial ASUS Blog

While this is great news for Prime users in the UK, it doesn’t do much good for anyone feeling short changed in the US. But it does mean that ASUS is listening, and they haven’t forgot about their loyal customers.

Have you been experiencing GPS issues with your Transformer Prime? If you had the opportunity, would you take back your Android 4.0 tablet, or go with the extended warranty? Let us know in the comments below.

Listen meandroids.
Android share, as measured in smartphone operating systems among new purchasers, plummeted from 61.6 percent in October to 46.9 percent in December. Meanwhile, iPhone rose from 25.1 percent share to 44.5 percent.

I would personally take the extended warranty. I don’t use the tablet gps very often and honestly the durability of a solid metal case is very tempting. I am very pleased that Asus is going above and beyond to fix this though. Most companies these days would have just said if you don’t like it too bad.

I’m a TF201 owner. I like it quite a bit, but it does have issues. The GPS and WiFi radios simply don’t have the gain they should have. ASUS screwed up by making an (admittedly gorgeous) aluminum unibody design (or whatever). Metal = bad for antenna strength, it seems to me.

The ICS upgrade was so wrought with issues, I never upgraded. I don’t plan on upgrading, based on what I’ve read.

Having said the above… I’d still buy the Prime. It’s simply the best tablet I’ve ever used. The Honeycomb OS is stable, fast, and it works for me. The under-the-hood horsepower of this thing is incredible. It does everything I need it to, and it does it well.

HOWEVER…

I still think ASUS should do the right thing and extend the US owners the same courtesy they did the UK owners. The TF700 announcement makes this whole situation seem especially egregious. I must admit if that if they do offer me a refund, I will take it… and buy the TF700 when it comes out.

Upon re-reading my post above, I feel I should state again that I really, really love the Prime. It’s fast, light, has a gorgeous screen, and it simply looks great.

But you know, ASUS really screwed the pooch on this one. If they had simply thought through the design choice of a metal back, the only issue in my mind (which is NOT a minor issue) is the OS upgrade rendering the device unusable.

One of the major draws of this device was the imminent upgrade to ICS. After reading post after post about the upgrade issues, I’m so glad I didn’t do it. Honeycomb isn’t the latest and greatest, but at least it works!

How does a company like ASUS manage something SO poorly? The whole situation almost seems surreal to me.

Guess I lucked out. ICS downloaded quickly and flawlessly. I could care less about the GPS. This is a wi-fi tablet, so i didn’t really buy it with the expectation of using the GPS much. Further, I haven’t had any wifi issues. I have to use an iPad everyday at work. The Prime is a far superior device. I’m addicted to it.

Question – is this GPS issue messing up things like geotagging for photos? Because other than recording a location (geotagging a photo for example), I don’t see how GPS can be utilized without a data source, so what exactly are people fuming over? I’m guessing the geotagging? Someone shed some light on this!

This. I have been wondering the same thing. Since you have no active connection (outside wifi), what would be the point of GPS? Could you use it as a standalone GPS? I thoght you had to have an active data connection for that, and if you’re not around wifi, there’s no option. And if tethering, why not just use your phone as GPS?

I get the uproar over a weak wifi signal, considering that’s all this can communicate with, but I must be missing something when it comes to all the complaints about GPS…

Well, one use is that you can cache areas of Google maps when you have a connection, then you only need GPS to use the device to find your way around (I did the same with my phone last year when in Wales – I had no signal when away from WiFi but did have GPS so I could just cache the areas I was visiting before I headed out for the day). It’s probably a little big to use as a satnav, but you get the picture :) GPS is also a lot more accurate than WiFi/cell tower triangulation for location services, so if logging an exact location is important you want GPS really.

HOLEEEE HELL I never thought of this. Delinear, if there was a way to be friends on this website, I totally would friend you. I like your follow up comments and THIS IS THE MOST AWESOME REVELATION OF 2012 so far for me. Looks like I got some areas to cache – I wonder how much all of Google Maps would take up… lol

The data connection is to load the maps and obtain directions from Google, but apparently you can cache maps (I knew about the caching but not applications of it) and still use the GPS. Can’t really do navigation but if you had tethering capabilities on your phone you probably could do it.

But do you have a mobile wi-fi connection? Oh, I guess you could have like a Clear card or something like that, those mobile hotspots you can get from all the carriers. I never thought about those, but still…would much rather just use my phone than a tablet for GPS navigation.

Im most sad to hear that the ICS upgrade didnt go well on the T-Prime. Sounds like not just the “It wont upgrade, no serial number” but that the experience with the OS is actually not how it should be.

Please sign this if you believe Asus should either refund your money and you send back your Prime, or adapt the new 700T back plate to work on the TF201 and give them to original T-Prime owners for free.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the minimum warranty in Europe 2 years? This would mean that the extended warranty is worthless. Apple bot bitten in Italy because it was selling AppleCare and not telling the customers that they already had a two year warranty…

It is in Europe, but unfortunately the UK is dragging it’s feet – here it’s currently only a year so the extra year is a benefit (I had the same issue when my XBOX did the red ring o’ death, it was outside the original year by a couple of months, fortunately MS extended the warranty to three years so I ended up being covered, otherwise I’d have been out of luck or had to pay for a repair).

I’m confused. I thought you had to have Wifi for the gps to work? If you move, the map has to update. And that requires a connection. The WiFi on my Prime works fine, but the gps has never locked on… not once. I didn’t guy it as a navigation device, because i’m under the impression that it requires a connection to navigate you from point A to point B. If you want to see my review on the Prime, check out my video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Tje21WDqY&hd=1

You need wifi to download maps but the GPS only uses satellites to pin your position. So you can download and area and then go into the wild. On some cellphones you can use 3G/4G to enhance the positioning system in some way though. Making it faster or something.

I already returned mine over a week ago due to the GPS, WIFI , and the double bricking dose I got with mine. First brick was after the evil firmware upgrade, and I managed to reset it with a wipe on the 3rd try (didn’t need the battery fix). The second was the day after the ICS update, and it was hosed after that one, so I returned it without even a call to ASUS. After reading what was going on online I knew they couldn’t help me anyways. I’ll be damned if I am waiting for a replacement for a tab I waited 5 months for in the first place.

Personally I thought it was sh*&%y to bring out another tab to solve their BS problems. Android geeks like us may be willing to put up with “just let your battery go dead” explanations for a brick, but don’t you think it might be difficult to sway fence sitters to the light side and away from Apple with crap like this going on?

Overall they handled this badly. Especially when they are seemingly shunning the biggest market in the world. Maybe companies should pay more attention to how MS handled the red rings of death on the XBOX….might learn something.

i reallly guess i am lucky.. My GPS locks on without wifi assist almost exactly where my Gnex does. Not that I use my gps on my prime anyway. My wifi shows the same amount of bars that my gnex and wifes ipad 2 shows in the same areas of my house. Ics took my Prime from what felt like a mustang with a 6 cyl to a mustang with a fully modified V8. I am content with what I got. I do not want to spend extra money for the goodies. Im fine.

good for you that you got a nice unit, im also sort of happy of cancelling my order and thinking of getting the MK2 i just hope they lower the price a bit because is kinda retarded (again they should remove the MK1 and just sell the MK2).

its sucks that the PRIME its so faulty when it was so expected, i love the metal finish, i love how asus is doing its products, but well, maybe didnt expected this outcome, they are trying to be bold and when you are bold you may face many incovenients.

i love asus they just need more experience and you know what? they are not bailing they are managing this on the right way

Europe has reasonably good customer protection (compared to what I hear from the US anyway), so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some kind of bonus rolled out across all of Europe. Probably not the two year warranty because most places other than the UK already have this enshrined in law.

I emailed ASUS customer service about swapping or at least getting a refund due to the poor reception paired with a 15% restocking fee if I refunded at the store and they replied with a comment along the lines of, GPS without WiFi is never accurate, if you have a real hardware issue that falls under warranty, contact the warranty department. Seems the US customer service isn’t on UK’s bandwagon. Got the store to wave the restocking fee if I went with store credit and now am biding my time.

I’ve had original Transformer tf101bq with kb dock and have been chomping at the bit to order Prime but sounds like so many serious issues. What percentage of the Primes have wi-fi issues?
My OG TF runs like a new dream, multi-tasks and will receive ICS soon.
Maybe the grass is always greener on the other side?

ASUS should offer a $100 rebate to existing Transformer Prime customers. I think the majority of current owners will keep their units, because they would have paid less for a lower quality model. ASUS will make more money from the rebate because existing customers will remain loyal and happy. ASUS will not incur additional cost trying to respond to the many complaints, returns, bad publicity, and potential loss goodwill.

These things usually have a restricted time placed on them so I’m guessing not (otherwise you could wait for a year then get a full refund even though the market price of the tablet was significantly less).

I’m seriously thinking of returning my Prime for a refund. Not just because of 3G (I have 3′s all you can eat data on PAYG). The tablet would be ideal for me as the navigating passenger in the family.
Unfortunately I have a micro SD card which my Prime refuses to let go of (it is in correctly as data on the card is accessible and it can be “software ejected).
I’m also annoyed that the Prime will only charge from ASUS’ brick sized usb mains plug and not from standard usb – not even from a PC. Why??

My final gripe is that every time the tablet sleeps it loses WiFi connection. Again, why? No other device I own has done that.

I had a Nokia N800. It had a hole in one corner into which a stylus fitted. Asus could surely do the same with the Transformer for a pull-out telescopic aerial. The final section could unscrew to be used as a stylus – a way to get good reception when needed AND providing a safe stylus housing.

I returned ny Prime to my local Currys who managed to extract the micro SD Card. I got a refund. I had a good think overnight ~(missing it badly!) and decided that being awkward to get the micro SD card out was better than it shooting across the room! So next day I bought it back – after checking the card was still recognised. I also solved the WiFi problem where I had WiFi but no Internet after sleep by setting it close WiFi on sleep. Now both start up together!
Will live with the GPS problem.
Overall I’m delighted. Streamed video is brilliant!

Just received my Asus Transformer Prime tablet and docking station today. What a mistake this purchase was… WiFi that comes and goes (two feet from the router), horrid WiFi numbers when you get 20 feet away from the router, continuous lockups… and all this AFTER the Ice Cream Sandwich update. This tablet and docking station will be returned tomorrow to Best Buy, and I will not ever be purchasing anything from Asus again. This is the worst piece of hardware I have ever seen, and I have a 30 year background in computers. To call this a beta unit would be too kind…

I prefer to get the newer model because I use the internet 9 Times 10 , kinda disappointed ,with the wifi, the slow loading. But I must say I would definitely would pay the difference for the new one that works . And yes I wanted GPS.

Refund or exchange. But as i wont risk by waiting for a policy, refund. Damn shame, the wifi is terrible as well or it is a programming issue. Apps like eBay can search all products but can’t find a network to enter an auction. A map app is the same way when i find all the states but no network to download them.

i would return it for a new one cause whats the use of having a tablet that the gps and WiFi gives problems and no update can fix that cause if it did there would not be any complaints at all , so if it is offered in the U.S were i can return it my tablet for one that has been fixed then mine would be on the first thing smoking back to the asus for a new one ..

My TF-201 gets 1+ bars, my Asus laptop gets 5 bars, 20ft from my wifi router. Upgraded to n-router. Now gets 2 bars after few minutes running. Between hardware & software, it’s like running Linux mid-90s. Definitely not ready for PRIME time.
GPS is a whole other matter. In the rush to get “something” to the 2011 Christmas market, Asus screwed up big time. I doubt that the TF-210 meets the “merchantability” requirements for product sales.
Because of the location of the touchpad and the chicklet keyboard, the Asus notebook has issues of it’s own. Rather than fight with the keyboard, I attach external USB keyboard & mouse.

TRIED TO ADDRESS ISSUES WITH BEST BUY, WHERE I PURCHASED MY TF201……THEY ASSURED ME AT POINT OF PURCHASE, IN FEB. 2012, THAT GPS/WI-FI PROBLEM WAS FIXED…..NOW, IN 2013, WITH CLASS ACTION SUIT MOVING FORWARD, I CONTACTED BEST BUY…….THEY BLEW ME OFF…………I RECOMMEND PEOPLE TO SUE IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT THE RETAILER FROM WHOM YOU PURCHASED YOU TF201…….THE STINGY $17 AND A BULKY GPS UNIT OFFERED BY ASUS, IS A JOKE AND AN INSULT…….ASUS AND BEST BUY DESERVE TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS